Nov 25, 2024 07:00:00

A 3D map that allows anyone to freely explore St. Peter's Basilica, the headquarters of the Catholic Church, is released

A 3D map that allows users to freely explore the interior of

St. Peter's Basilica, the headquarters of the Catholic Church in Vatican City , has been released online.

The Papal Basilica of St. Peter
https://virtual.basilicasanpietro.va/en

La Basilica di San Pietro – Microsoft Unlocked
https://unlocked.microsoft.com/vatican/

St. Peter's Basilica is a historic church founded in the 4th century, which enshrines the tomb of St. Peter, who is considered the first Pope of the Catholic Church. The current basilica was completed in the 16th century, and was designed by famous architects such as Michelangelo Buonarroti and Gian Lorenzo Bernini , and took more than 100 years to build.

This time, a 3D map of St. Peter's Basilica was created through a collaboration between the Vatican, Microsoft, and Iconem , a French startup that develops digital and 3D modeling technology for cultural heritage. The Iconem team took more than 400,000 high-resolution images of St. Peter's Basilica and scanned the basilica using drones, cameras, and sensors. They processed this data on Microsoft Azure and created a 'precise digital twin' of St. Peter's Basilica.

You can access the 3D map of St. Peter's Basilica via the Internet. First, go to the official website and click 'Enter The Site.'

Click '3D Tour' in the top right.

A 3D map of St. Peter's Basilica was then displayed, but it seems that detailed parts are not mapped unless you get close to the object. Since I started from

St. Peter's Square in front of the basilica, the obelisk is visible in the center. You can look around the map by left-clicking and dragging, and you can zoom in on a part by scrolling. To move to the next part, click the forward button at the bottom left of the screen.

I arrived in front of the central obelisk. It took a while because the processing was quite heavy, but after waiting for a while, a detailed obelisk was displayed.

You can view the beautiful sculptures from a variety of angles, but it is difficult to adjust to the angle you have in mind because it is a slow and somewhat difficult to use app.

The portico at the entrance to the cathedral.

The interior of the cathedral is decorated with various sculptures and decorations related to St. Peter and Christianity, so it's fun to just take a look around.

At some points, the 3D map didn't render properly at certain angles or when you got too close to the subject, so if this bothers you, you might want to pull the camera back and take a look.

The 3D map released allows you to take a closer look at various parts of St. Peter's Basilica, which is great for people who are interested but find it difficult to go to the site. However, due to the heavy processing time and difficulty of operation, it may take some time before you can comfortably view the area.